The Breeders (13 page)

Ethan or Clay? Too big for Ethan, so it must be Clay. Before my lids slip closed, the figure steps into the square of moonlight cutting through the window. It’s Bennett. What’s he doing in our room?

Sitting up, I startle him. He whips his head in my direction. “He’s awake,” he whispers, pointing.

Rough hands grab my wrists. They’re wrenched behind my back.

“Hey!” I shout, groggily. “Stop!”

Scratchy twine pinches my wrists as my hands are bound. What’s happening?

“Let me go!” I arch up from the bed. Someone slams his body against mine. My face hits the mattress as hands grip my shoulders. The old man uses his body weight to hold me down. I struggle to breathe as terror grips me.

Bennett leans down until his face is a foot away. I fight to keep my eyes open, though the fatigue is heavy. Why is it so hard to wake up? The muddy water, the foreign taste. Those bastards drugged us.

“Get off!” I yell, though it’s muffled as the old man presses me into the mildewed mattress.

“Knock this ‘un out again, Ben,” the old man grumbles.

Bennett shakes his head. “Used up the last of the tranquilizer. Don’t matter, though. We’re all set.” Bennett heaves something onto his back—Ethan, drugged and hog-tied.

“You sonovabitch, put him down!” I scream.

I throw myself upward and buck off the old man, who crashes into the wall, sending plaster dust raining down. I try to stand, but the tranquilizers are too strong. My mind’s forgotten how to control my legs. I topple to the floor.

“Goddamn, Pop, hold him down!” Bennett sets Ethan on the floor and grabs hold of my legs just as I get them working. Rolling to my side, I kick out and land a blow to his ribs. He buckles, but recovers fast. He snags my pants and wraps both arms around my legs. I flop against him like a fish.

“Pop, get up and hold this bastard! Jesus! He’s gonna wake Clay.”

“Just kill ’im,” the old man shouts.

Bennett clutches my legs to his chest. Unable to find more twine, he wraps the blanket around them and pins them down. I growl. I spit. I fight against my bonds, but they’re knotted tight. The panic settles on me like a lead blanket. They’re going to kill us?

Bennett hefts my brother’s limp body onto his shoulder. The old man tries to lift me, but I squirm so much he can’t get a good hold. He looks at the unconscious Clay instead. “What ’bout your townie?” he asks.

Bennett looks back at Clay’s motionless form on the floor. “I told you, Clay stays here. He don’t need no part in this. Once we get our money, we’re gone.”

My eyes trace Clay’s body, begging him to wake up. “Clay’ll find us,” I say, my voice breaking. I won’t cry, though. I bite my cheek until I can taste blood. “He’ll kill you.”

Bennett looks down at me as if surprised I’m still here. “We’ll have our dough and be half way to Jacksonville by the time those tranqs wear off. He can tackle the Riders if you’re really the treasure ya think ya are.”

“The Riders?” I ask, afraid for the answer.

Bennett nods. “Riders pay decent money for benders, but better for boys. That sweet-faced brother of your’n out to fetch us a nice price.”

I tuck my head into the dirty mattress as tears well up. I’ve heard of gangs like the Riders. They buy boys and use them for … disgusting things. I glance at Ethan’s fragile frame and then back up at Bennett, hoping see a glimmer of human compassion behind his eyes. Bennett’s eyes are like dry pebbles. He won’t look at me.

“Why’re you doing this?” A sob wavers at the back of my throat.

“Money’s all. Gotta get out of this God-forsaken hole.” Bennett takes a dirty bandanna from his pocket and brings it over to my face. “Shut up, now.” He gags me and slips a burlap sack over my head.

I let the tears come. They soak into the rough burlap pressed against my cheeks. Bennett lifts me. I struggle, but his farmer’s hands are strong. He limps outside, his uneven gate rocking me back and forth. Then he tosses me onto a hard surface. I shift around until I get the feel of it with my arms and back. It’s the trunk of our Jeep. A few moments later, a body slides in next to mine. Ethan. I curl myself around him as Bennett closes us in and the engine flares to life. We bump down the road, toward unknown horrors and all I can do is close my eyes.

* * *

Shards of light press at my eyelids. I moan, blink and squint into the brightness. A shadow slides in and blocks out the sun. My eyes adjust and find Bennett’s hooked nose, sunken cheeks and pocked skin. I search his face for compassion and find none.

During the night, the gag has worked its way out of my mouth. My tongue tastes like sweaty sock, but I’m able to speak again. “If you let us go,” I croak, “I’ll give you all our supplies.”

Bennett shrugs. “Already got those.”

He grabs my lapels and hauls me to a sitting position. From the back of the Jeep, I can see we’re parked on the shoulder at the crossroads of two well-driven highways. There’s nothing in sight but hard pan, scrub brush and a few buttes off in the distance. A vulture circles around a blazing noon sun. I’ve been out for hours. We could be anywhere.

Bennett’s my only hope. I think of Ethan and a pathetic quality seeps into my voice. “You can’t do this. Do you know what they’ll do to us?”

Bennett doesn’t meet my gaze. He offers a plastic jug of muddy water.

I shake my head, thinking of the tranquilizers.

“It’s clean,” he says and he takes a swig. A large gulp spills out of the corners of his mouth and into his dirty hair. He flings the water off with a shake of his head. He offers the jug back to me.

It’s hardly clean, but must not be drugged. I’m so thirsty I can’t turn it down. Bennett pours the musty water in my mouth. It washes away some of the stickiness in my throat, but leaves a foul aftertaste.

He starts to walk away.

“Bennett, let the boy go. Just him. He’s too young for this.”

Bennett glances at Ethan, still unconscious on the bed of the Jeep beside me. “He’s worth double what you are.” Then he walks around the Jeep and out of my view.

If only he knew what I was worth. Then it hits me.

“Bennett,” I shout as he’s walking away. I can’t think about what I’m about to do or I might not do it. “I’m a girl.”

The silence around the Jeep presses down on me until I can’t breathe. What have I done? It doesn’t matter. If it will save Ethan, nothing else matters.

He stops dead in his tracks. Then he swivels on his heel and marches back.

I’m trembling a little when he steps up and peers at my face. I bite my lip and let him look.

“Prove it,” he says slowly. The old man wanders up behind him, glaring at me with beady eyes. They both stare at me like I’m some sort of new, exotic monster.

“I’ll prove it. Just let him go,” I say, a lump forming in my throat.

Bennett reaches for me and I flinch. He runs a hand over my damp shirt. My stomach lurches at his touch. I want to bite at the hand that runs over my chest. Instead I close my eyes and wait for it to be over.

“Breasts,” he says as he fondles mine. I see his face turn up in sick glee.

He’s reaching in to pull off my shirt when his father elbows him and points to the horizon.

A dust cloud boils up over a dry hill. The Riders, whoever they are, will be here in minutes. And I’ve just told my captors my secret.

Bennett runs around to the front of the Jeep and pulls out his gun.

I struggle forward, the ropes on my wrists digging roughly into my skin. “Let the boy go! All you need is me. Let him go!”

Bennett never looks at me. His face is lit with joy like discovering a wad of silver buried in his back yard. I’ve made a mistake. He won’t free Ethan. He’ll make a fortune off both of us. And I’m running out of time. I scoot over to Ethan and nudge him with my foot. “Wake up! Ethan, get up!” He moans, but I can’t wake him.

I tug on the cord at my wrist. It’s tight, but if I have time to work on it, I could probably wiggle it loose. I pull until my skin’s raw, but I’m nowhere close to free.

Then a truck, welded together from pieces of others, chugs toward us. In its wake are two skinny tan horses, with a rider each. I count my adversaries—two in the cab, two on horseback. Four men. Even with free hands, my odds aren’t good against four armed men. I work on the twine at my wrists as the men jump out, slam doors, or sling their legs over their horses.

The Riders are the strangest group of men I’ve ever seen. They’re clad in animal-hide loincloths and shapeless moccasins. They have dark brown braids adorned with feathers or with bones coiling down their backs. Their arms, chests and faces are streaked with stripes of ashy gray, brown and dried blood in alternating patterns. A phrase flashes through my head—war paint—though I’ve no idea where it came from. The two on horseback could be twins, though one’s taller than the other. One Rider, emerging from the truck, has a thin bone—a coyote rib perhaps—shoved through his nostrils. Another wears a necklace of white squares. The closer he strides, the more sure I am they’re human teeth.

In contrast to their basic dress, they could be an armory ad. The squat leader with a small belly sagging over his loincloth has an antique shotgun slung over his bare back. The second man, with a network of slashing scars running the length of his chest, carries a bulky semi-automatic rifle in his bear-like hands. I haven’t seen one of those in a long time. The twins each hold wooden spears.

They’re men gone wild. One of the primitive cultures that slunk off into the desert and stayed there with their sick religions and rituals. Some believe in human sacrifice, but not before raping and torturing their victims as much as they like. My eyes trace over the fine points of their spears, the necklace of teeth that are too small to be adult. I pull furiously at my bonds until my skin shreds.

The Riders approach warily, sniffing the air, heads cocked, like a pack of animals ready to attack at any sudden movement. I half expect them to curl their lips up and growl. The leader lets his eyes slip over Ethan and I. Luckily my chest is still covered.

“I’ve got a girl,” Bennett says, nearly jumping up and down with glee.

Every eye turns to me. I try to shrink into my surroundings and focus on freeing my hands. My wrists are raw now, bleeding.

The leader sniffs toward me, as if he could pick up my scent. He turns to Bennett, his voice rolling out slowly, like he hasn’t used it in a while. “The Good Mother frowns on lies.” He glares at Bennett. His eyes trace over the delicate face of my baby brother. His lips curl up. “We’ll take the boy.” He waves his hand dismissively at me. “Bender, you keep. Bender’s pleas do not appease the Good Mother.”

What does he mean appease the Good Mother? Is that their god? The leader walks up to my brother and lifts up his sleeping head. “Yes,” he moans in pleasure, his brown body rocking against the Jeep. “This one’s cries will wake Good Mother to our troubles. She will bless us.”

His cries? This is not happening. I want that man’s soiled hands off my brother. I got to get my hands free. Got to.

“I ain’t kidding.” Bennett says, a frenzied look creeping up in his eyes. He points at me. “See for yourself.”

The leader draws back his hand from where it cupped Ethan’s face. He looks as if he’ll scold Bennett again, but he turns slowly. Three lines of ash mar each cheek, and a pink scar slashes through his upper lip, a sore festering in the corner of his mouth.

My heartbeat picks up at every step he takes. The others come now too, crowding behind their leader, leering with brown, cracked teeth, their painted faces. Behind me the rope around my hands twangs loose a notch. It’ll be wide enough to pull free any minute. The leader’s rifle hangs loosely on his back like a child’s forgotten toy. If he’s got ammo in that gun, I might have a chance.

The leader leans in until I can smell the animal fat in his greasy, black braid. His calloused fingers reach for me and I cringe. He grips my chin and wrenches my head from side to side. If my mouth weren’t so dry, I’d spit on him. I grit my teeth and keep working on the twine.

“No benders,” he says to Bennett.

“She’s got breasts,” Bennett says.

The leader pokes at the sore on his mouth with his tongue as he looks me over again. He grabs my shirt and pulls me to him.

“A woman would make the Good Mother pleased,” he says, nodding. “Oh yes. Very pleased indeed.”

My heart is thrumming in my chest. I can smell excitement on him like a thick musk. He tugs up my shirt, revealing the dirty cotton binding on my breasts. His fingers trace my skin. His panting pulses against my neck. The sick longing on his face is unmistakable.

My right wrist slips out of the twine. I’m free! I wait as the leader leans toward me, his fingers reaching for the cotton binding on my chest. I force myself to look away from the Rider’s spit-flecked tongue that circles his dark red lips.
The shotgun,
I think.
In a minute it’ll be mine.

He flicks out a small knife of whittled bone and slips it under the binding on my breasts. I feel the coolness of the blade against my stomach. I turn my eyes skyward and wait to be exposed. The bottom of the bandage frays against the blade. I close my eyes.

A gun blast crashes through the desert.

As if in slow motion, a bullet removes half of the leader’s head.

Chapter Eleven

Warm blood splatters my face. The leader’s hair blows up as part of his scalp curls over his forehead. Blood spurts like a fountain, drenching his hair, his neck, pattering on the Jeep. And the grayish clumps that can only be … I squeeze my eyes shut. The leader falls like a sack of cement, sending a cloud of dust up around his twitching body. I stare at the blood that pours into the dirt.

The place breaks into chaos.

The horses bolt into the distance, kicking up dust. Three Riders swivel and draw weapons. The semi-automatic rifle strung across Bear Paws’s shoulders gets tossed to the dirt as he lunges for his leader’s rifle. Just as I thought, no bullets. I might have a chance to grab a gun with everyone’s eyes on the horizon, but that would mean coming out of cover. I can’t do that until I know who’s shooting.